The sales manager of Twin Cities-based Cafe Imports was recently profiled in the Star Tribune, offering some interesting commentary on Minnesota’s coffee culture.

Tim Chapdelaine spoke to the paper just after returning from a trip to Brazil, where he was representing the green coffee importer as a buyer.

“We spent one night eating and talking with 20 farmers under a full moon, taking our turn at the barbecue for four hours. None of us spoke great Portuguese, so the eating was our communication. The connection of food is very strong between people,” Chapdelaine told reporter James Lileks, who offered his own bit of editorial on Minnesotans and coffee:

Minnesota coffee has long been associated with the Lutheran variety — made with eggshells, served in church basements. Well, served in cups, in church basements.

But that’s all changing, Chapdelaine told the paper: “Minnesotans tend to like drip coffee and like it strong. Weak coffee has never done very well here. Now the coffee scene here is really growing, particularly the small-batch brewing, where you make one cup at a time using a cone or press and grind fresh coffee and use good water.”